


But Is This The Path Of Light?

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Series: Of Discovery And Strife [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amnesia, Anxiety, Bodyguard, Companionship, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Link struggles okay, No Spoilers, Rhoam is not a good father, Slow Burn, Telepathy, Zelda is lonely, really slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2018-10-20 02:31:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10653084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: Link is retrieved from a cave with no memory of the past and only a (scatterbrained) voice in his head. He is taken by the Centurions, a paramilitary group that claim to represent law and order, and they take him to meet Rhoam, the political leader of Hyrule.This is where Link meets the girl who was speaking to him in his head. Zelda is his tie to the real world and if he fails her, he will have nowhere to go. He has to follow Zelda everywhere, and slowly they become far closer than Rhoam ever intended.





	1. Into Everything

**Author's Note:**

> The prequel to this in the series is pretty much a necessary read, but it's not very long :) You might be able to read and understand this without, though.

Link's first impression of the people behind the stone was of five men who were a little out of breath but nevertheless rather intimidating- he leapt to his feet, left hand automatically flying up to his shoulder and being surprised to find nothing there. Link frowned. What had that been about?

"Stand down!" The man at the front commanded. Link shifted backwards automatically, trying to ignore the panic that rose in him. Why was he acting like this? He was doing it without thinking and without knowing why. "Master Link, how do you feel?"

Master Link? He was nobody's master. Link floundered for words, his mouth opening and closing at least twice before he finally summoned a sentence. "I'm- I'm alright." He almost winced as he said it. That was all wrong. He wasn't even meant to know that was his name. He should have been more confused. He should have said that he wasn't alright, said that he was terrified. He was terrified, honestly, but not entirely because he'd just woken up in a strange place. It was mostly because of the people in front of him and what Zelda thought of them.

Two more of the men stepped into the chamber, one of them resting a hand on his arm. Link flinched away on instinct, wondering where the thought to block any more moves with his shield had come from. He didn't have a shield. He was barely even wearing pants, let alone full armour and a shield. And earlier he had reached for a sword, knowing full well that he didn't have one. He took a shaky breath in and out before attempting to open his mouth again. "Where am I?" He asked.

"You're somewhere safe, and we're taking you somewhere even safer," one of the men said firmly. "We need to be quick. Before the others arrive..."

"I don't understand," he said, backing away. Decision to comply with five men twice his size or not, this was scary and it was completely unreasonable to expect him to come after an answer like that. "I've been sitting in a cold cave for an hour and you're telling me it's safe? I could have run out of air!"

"You've been sitting here a lot longer than an hour, Master Link. Your air wouldn't have run out. Now, come on!" There was a little bit more force behind the man's voice this time, and Link decided it was probably in his best interests just to follow him.

"What's happening?" He asked, following the men as they started towards the exit. He squinted as they approached the light. How long had he been without sunlight?

"You're being taken somewhere safe. That's all it's safe to tell you right now, Master Link. There are people who will want to speak more formally to you later, I'm sure." Link sighed, resigning himself to staying quiet and just following. It was clear he wasn't going to get anything more out of these men.

“Are you okay?” Zelda’s voice sounded in his head. “I know they can be a bit rough, but these ones won’t dare hurt you. My father pays them, and they wouldn’t dare go against his orders to keep you safe. I’m about to go home, let me know if anything happens, and I hope I’ll be able to see you soon.”

Link had to stop himself from replying verbally or acknowledging that he had heard. Instead, he focused his attention on the floor, then replied in his head. ‘Who is your father? He has some scary people on his side…’

“You haven’t met the other side yet,” she said, and he wasn’t sure if she sounded afraid or angry or...something else. “There were some other people coming for you, they’re called the Yiga Clan. They wear masks so they’re also really scary, but I think my father’s men are just as bad I suppose. Sorry. That wasn’t very clear for you.”

‘So I’m with bad people, and they’re with your father?’ This really wasn’t making a lot of sense. Link hoped someone would bother to explain things fully to him soon- he was starting to get tired of everyone keeping him in the dark ‘for his own good’.

“I’m sorry about this,” Zelda said, and she sounded genuinely sorry. She was probably the only person in this mess he would ever be able to trust. “These are bad people, my father is a bad person, and the people they’re up against are bad people too. I’d try to make the best of it, but I don’t know how.”

‘I’ll just try not to piss them off,’ Link grumbled. Zelda didn’t reply to that, so he looked up and tried to focus on where he was going. They were following a long path towards some sort of city, although the sight of it didn’t stir even the slightest hint of memory in Link. The sky was covered in clouds but it was still much brighter than the cave, and when he took a breath in the air smelt bad...it smelt of conflict and cannon smoke, but he didn’t think that was what it was meant to be. He didn’t know how he knew the smell.

He didn’t mean to, but in Zelda’s absence he started looking around the loose circle of men that surrounded him. There had been more standing outside the cave, so there were seven of them now, and at least another two who were trying to look like they weren’t walking with the group. He started thinking about how he could escape, and the thoughts were almost unwanted. It sort of scared him how he was mapping out weak points in the circle and how he could take a weapon from the man who was carrying what looked like a small pistol. This sort of thing wasn’t something he remembered learning how to do, although he had a vague awareness that it was something that he had had to learn how to do. Ordinary people couldn’t do this sort of thing- but what made him any more than ordinary? Why did he know what he did?

“Are the people to the left meant to be here?” He asked quietly. Maybe it was a bad idea to help the people who were, as Zelda said, bad people, but he didn’t really fancy being attacked either. He was pretty sure that he’d be scared by what he did if someone went for him. The people to the left had just showed up and they were wearing the same kind of clothes as five of the people in their group, but they looked distinctively different. Something was off about them.

“What?” The man standing closest to him looked over to their left, and then cursed. “No,” he said quietly. “Keep walking, Master Link. Pretend you didn’t see them. If they make a move, we’ll keep you safe.”

“I can fight,” he said, and he could hear Zelda telling him to stop in his head. But he shouldn’t stop. He could fight, providing he had a weapon. “But I don’t know how much has changed. As you said, I’ve been gone for more than an hour.”

“We can protect you,” the man said firmly. “No need to worry about learning how to fire a gun on the spot like this.”

“I know how to fire a gun,” Link said, surprised to find that he actually did. At least he remembered something, then. Even if it was a rather violent something. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not.

“Guns have changed a lot since you were last awake,” he said. “Please, for your own safety and for all of ours, you only just woke up and I don’t think your body is ready.”

“Please, Link,” Zelda said in his head. “Don’t get involved just yet. I...I don’t like guns and shootings, but you can train with one later. You’ll be safe for now.”

“Alright…I’ll let you handle it.” He sighed, relaying much the same message to Zelda in his head. Whoever these mysterious followers were, he would just have to stay back out of their way. He could do that. He was pretty sure he could fight, which logically meant he would be able to run, too, if necessary. But he was sure these people knew what they were doing. Zelda wouldn’t warn him to comply with them if she didn’t think they were dangerous enemies.

They walked on for a few minute more, and then one of the mysterious people made a move. It was fast- ridiculously fast, and Link barely had time to register what was going on before there was a knife and a full-scale fight going on around him. One of the men who he had been told to trust pulled him away to the side, holding Link a little too tightly to be comfortable. If he’d known they’d be fighting with knives he would have insisted on having one to defend himself; if there was anything he knew how to fight with, it was a knife.

He watched as the fighting continued. The other people were much faster than the people he was meant to trust, but there were fewer of them and they didn’t have the bulk of the others. He could tell by just watching that this was not a force that was prepared to deal with such large numbers, or with being detected before they struck. If it had been a surprise, he could imagine that it would have been easy for them to walk away with him, especially if they’d thrown him a weapon and told him to fight his way out.

But no, that wasn’t what had happened. And after only a few minutes, their mysterious assailants had been dealt with. Link shook himself free of the other man’s grip, crossing over back towards the group. “What was that?”

One of them shook his head before starting to walk on again. “We’re in their territory at the moment, we shouldn’t speak badly of them or slow down. We need to get somewhere safe.”

“He’s lying,” Zelda said immediately in his mind, almost making him jump. “This is neutral territory. If anything, the people here have Centurion sympathies and they hate the Yiga Clan, who just attacked you.”

‘Who are the Yiga Clan? And the Centurions?’ Neither name sounded particularly familiar, but he was very much hoping that Zelda wasn’t going to give him more ‘you’ll find out when the time is right’ nonsense. He wanted answers.

“The Yiga Clan are a group of Sheikah and often some other minorities who control mostly the poorer areas of the city,” she said. “The men here don’t want to tell you that in case you sympathise, because they don’t know how much memory of before that you retain. The gang serve a man called Ganon, who is abhorrent and absolutely vile. He’s the political opposition to my father, who funds this group, the Centurions. They claim to stand up for law and order and many of them are in the police force, but I don’t trust them even though they’re meant to like me.”

‘I remember literally nothing,’ Link told her flatly. ‘None of this sounds familiar.’ The word Sheikah did ring a very vague bell, although he had absolutely no idea why. And at the rate people seemed to be telling him things, he was never going to find out. 

“That’s okay and works to your advantage for now,” Zelda said. “The longer you spend pretending to be confused or actually being confused, the longer you’re given allowances for not being their perfect soldier. I very much doubt that you’d be on their side if you had all your memory, but they have ideas about you.”

‘I’ll take your word for it.’ Link sincerely hoped that Zelda was a trustworthy source. If it turned out that she had been lying to him this whole time, he didn’t know how he would cope. Everything here was just a little too overwhelming. ‘I’m not sure there’s much else I can do, really.’

“I like to think I can be trusted, but I have opinions and they show,” she said. Link was pretty sure he could respect that. He didn’t have opinions on what was going on yet except that he needed more information and he would have liked to leave the cave earlier, but he was sure he would have some in time. “I don’t like the violence, but some people say it’s necessary.”

‘They seem to think that I’m incapable of fighting…the opposite is true, though.’ Link kicked at a small pebble on the path with a huff that must have sounded rather out of context to the men around him. “So. Where are we going?”

"Somewhere safe," the man said. It was starting to get repetitive and it wasn't helping him with the trust aspect. "Our boss has a house by a railway station in the city so we're going there. Quick exit if needed, and the house itself is secure and private."

"What's a railway station?" They were approaching the big city now, and Link couldn't even begin to comprehend the sights in front of him. He knew vaguely in the back of his mind what a city was supposed to look like, and this wasn't it. Cities weren't so...they were grey, yes, but not like this. This was so bright and strange and there was just something wrong. Everything looked cold, and like things had happened, but only in the past. It looked like nothing moved in this city, yet he could see people everywhere.

"It's a station where trains come," one of the men said. He sounded annoyed, so Link didn't bother asking what a train was. He was sure he could figure it out eventually.

"Trains are like large carriages or cars," Zelda said. "They run on set paths so lots of people can go to the same place quickly. It's meant to reduce the number of cars on the road and giving easy transport to people who can't afford them."

'Trains must be very popular then,' he thought. He'd seen quite a few cars today, but he had a vague impression that they were very expensive.

"They're relatively popular. You're almost at my father's house now, so you might see a train or two. And hopefully, you'll see me. If my father allows it. He has a nasty habit of trying to keep me out of this sort of thing, and I won't stand for it this time."

Link suddenly felt very nervous as he realised what was going on. These violent men, who had just fought two very skilled fighters and sent him away, were taking him to a house which was secure (which meant escaping would be hard) in a place he didn't know to meet a powerful person who would probably control his fate.

As if she had sensed his worry, Zelda spoke up in his head again. "I shall go and speak to my father now. If he won't let me see you, I'll sneak in when you're left alone. Don't worry, Link."

'Thank you,' he thought back, and Zelda went quiet. He hoped he'd be able to see her. Then, at least, he would know that she was real and this was actually happening. At the moment, nothing really felt all that real. It was all strange and unfamiliar and he didn't even want to think about the possibility of the future when he didn't even know what was happening now or what had happened before.

Five minutes of walking later, Link saw a large house come into sight. A short distance away from the house were two long metal rails with wooden slats in between them. Presumably that was the railway that he had been told about. It didn’t look like he’d been expecting- but then again, nothing did.

However strange the railway was, it was nothing compared to the house. It was huge, bigger than- bigger than something Link remembered from the past. It was white, so white it reflected the sunlight, and there were so many windows, and at the front there was a large lawn. The lawn, at least, was familiar, though maybe slightly greener than expected. There was a pond, and trees, and flowers, and these were all things that he recognised. It felt natural to see those.  
And then he looked back at the house, and it was just too sharp and angular and wrong. He didn’t realise that he had stopped moving until one of the men nudged him in the back, at which point he reluctantly stumbled forwards, on down the path towards the house. Houses weren’t meant to look like that. They were meant to be made of bricks, or wood if you lived somewhere really remote. He didn’t even know what that was, but it was evident that at least part of it was glass. How could the house be secure or safe or whatever they’d said if half of it was made of glass? Glass was breakable. Everyone knew that. 

Link stopped at the front door, and one of the men knocked. He wondered if he should say something when someone answered the door, and if so, what was he supposed to say? ‘Hello, I’m an amnesiac and I really want to talk to Zelda’ probably wouldn’t go down too well. Maybe the men would speak for him, at least for now. Maybe he should express his confusion about the situation, his anger at how he’d been prodded along without being told anything, or maybe even lie and say he had been afraid for his life when they had been attacked. The danger of his situation was still very clear and he didn’t want to seem weak, but he didn’t want to seem ungrateful either. He’d just...smile, and hope for the best. Something told him that that would be a safe strategy. If he was asked any questions, he would just have to do his best to answer them. Although honestly, right now he felt like he would be better off if he was the one asking the questions. He certainly felt as if he had that right.

Someone opened the door. It didn’t look like she was in charge, but when she looked at him, she frowned slightly. It didn’t look to be in an unfriendly way, but he was still wary. Maybe she was confused? He quickly looked her over and it didn’t seem like she was carrying a weapon. At least not openly. Surely if this was meant to be a protected place, she’d have a weapon? Unless she planned to use the broken glass as a dagger.

“Come in,” she said, stepping aside to gesture them all into the house. Link frowned, but stepped inside anyway. Hopefully this wasn’t a trap. Something about this just screamed that it was, though. His senses just wouldn’t shut up.

Stepping inside the house just made him even more confused. He didn’t understand why everything was so large and why there were so many strange decorations. Why were there stairs in the entrance hall and why were they covered in plants? Why was the ceiling so high, and why was it letting in so much light? Of course, that was glass too. It was all glass. He was sure that soon enough someone was just going to smash it all and he’d die with sixty glass shards embedded in his brain.

He tried to step out from under the glass ceiling, and ended up pressed against one wall where the stone roof was just about covering him. Hopefully no one minded that he was standing here, but it seemed like the most easily defendable position in the room. No one could shatter the roof on him or drop from above, and he could see in front of him and didn’t have to worry about attacks from behind. There were no makeshift weapons within arm’s reach, but he could see three exits to the hall within sprinting distance that didn’t have a heavy door to open.

Again, Link found himself surprised by this tactical knowledge coming seemingly out of nowhere. A few of the men were giving him odd looks and muttering amongst themselves, but Link didn’t care. If an assassin shattered the roof, he wasn’t going to be the one with glass in his skull.

“Come on, kid,” one of the men said, beckoning to him. “You don’t have to go over there. We’re not going to attack you.”

“I’m not worried about you,” he said, glancing up at the ceiling. He was worried about them, he was very worried that they could easily kill him right now, but he wasn’t going to say that. That would make them suspicious.

“You think the ceiling’s gonna break?” The man laughed. “Kid, that thing could probably withstand a nuclear explosion. You’re perfectly safe in here.” Link hadn’t got the faintest clue what a nuclear explosion was, so he just narrowed his eyes and stayed put. He would not trust a ceiling made of something that could be shattered.


	2. Arrangements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link meets Zelda and her father and arrangements are made for his future.

After a few minutes of waiting, someone else entered the room and told the men that ‘Lord Rhoam’ was ready to see ‘the young soldier’ now and they could all leave. Link would have put money on the young soldier being him, but he didn’t have any, so he just stayed put. He would not move until he knew exactly which exit he was crossing to. The other men wandered out of the room, and Link frowned and started to step after them. The person who had come in and spoken stopped him, though- apparently he was to wait here to be seen. Alright, then. He knew where the exits were here.

However, as soon as all the men had completely left the room, the person who had stopped him leaving earlier indicated that he should follow him up the strange stairs. Looking up all the time for shadows on the roof was very difficult while trying to look at the stairs at the same time so he didn’t fall over anything or miss a step. Honestly, he was absolutely terrified and he had no idea how he was going to survive this.

At the top of the stairs, he was told to wait again. Link pressed himself against a wall, hiding away as best he could. No one could sneak up on him from this position, no matter how hard they tried. And hopefully he could push any potential attackers down the stairs. To pass the time, he surveyed the corridor he was in. It wasn’t as light as the floor below, as there was something above this set of three rooms that he couldn’t see. He was glad of it, too. Right in front of him, there was a small door that was open, showing a grey and white room with something that resembled a toilet, but the idea of toilets working indoors was a little too much, even for this. To his right was the room the man had gone into, and to the left…

“That’s my room,” Zelda told him. “Father says I’m not allowed to meet you until he’s spoken to you, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a mistake if I was just going to the bathroom and you happened to be out here.”

‘I won’t ask how indoor toilets work. It sounds kind of gross,' he decided. 'Your father isn’t planning on killing me, is he?’ Link bit his lip, glancing at the closed door of Zelda’s room. He didn’t get a response, but barely a few moments, he saw the doorknob turn and then the door pushed open.

He wasn’t going to pretend anything; he blushed when he saw Zelda. Speaking to her in his head was strange, but he’d sort of received an impression of the sort of person she was. But the lingering fear remained, especially when she was quiet, that she just wasn’t real. But no. Zelda was blonde and had green eyes and she was very, very real, and she was smiling. At him. For some reason, he now had no idea what to say.

Link lifted his hand in a sort of awkward half-wave, smiling. Hopefully that didn’t look too ridiculous, although honestly, it probably did. He still couldn’t find the words to actually say hello to Zelda, no matter how hard he tried.

“You’re short,” Zelda said, but it was out loud this time and much quieter than the voice in his head. He didn’t think he’d ever been so embarrassed in his life. The only thing she could say was that he was short? Then again, he couldn’t say anything at all. “Sorry, I- I was just a little surprised.”

“Hello to you too,” Link said, a little offended but mostly just amused. He liked Zelda already, both inside of his head and outside of it. “You’re, um...real.” He looked sheepishly down at the ground. This was definitely not the best start to a conversation.

“I like to think so,” she said. “Sorry about that, I’ve just always been told you were a great soldier who dominated the battlefield and had a commanding presence and you- sorry this is probably rather rude of me. I apologise.”

“That’s news to me.” Link wasn’t sure he was capable of dominating or commanding anything. He was just...confused. Thankfully, before he had the chance to make a fool of himself any more, the door to the other office started to open. Zelda immediately jumped back in the direction of her open door and hid behind it as a person emerged.

“Master Link, Lord Rhoam is ready to meet you now,” the man said. Zelda wished him luck in his head as he stepped forward. He had been mostly okay before, just a little paranoid, but now he felt all twisted up by nerves. This was important. This was how his future would be determined. He walked forwards, glancing back at where Zelda was hiding, and then stepped into the room. It was a large office- predictable, really, everything about this house was large- that seemed to mostly be full of bookshelves. That was something within his realm of understanding. A large room full of books.

“Good afternoon,” the man seated at the desk said. Link’s eyes had not been attracted to him immediately; the books were more interesting. He was quite short, but he was sitting down, and he was rather wide. Much wider than seemed natural, anyway. His hair was grey and he had a very impressive beard, and a stare that reminded Link of something he knew he had forgotten, and he just had an impression of it left.

“Good afternoon,” Link said back, hoping that he sounded vaguely impressive. Everyone seemed to think that he was someone important and strong, so he might as well try to make a good first impression.

“You’re Link, then?” He asked. Link nodded, getting the distinct impression that he’d disappointed the man somehow. “My name is Rhoam, but those who work for me call me Lord Rhoam, and I wish to make you an offer.”

“I see. Does part of this offer include telling me who I am?” Link stood up as tall as he could, trying to look- how Zelda had put it- dominating and commanding. He didn’t think it was working very well.

“It’s rather difficult to know all that much about you,” Rhoam said. Link wanted to scream because Zelda seemed to know plenty about him. “It will probably be easier for you if you don’t have to try and be a person you don’t remember.”

“If you say so.” Link hoped that he had managed to cover up the slightly petulant note in his voice- he was starting to get very frustrated with people’s refusal to tell him things. “So, what’s this deal?” 

“I can help you,” Rhoam said. Zelda had gone completely silent in his head. “You’re a young man, full of potential, but you’re in a sticky situation because of your circumstances. I know you have very little memory of the past and you know nothing of the present. The only way you can be safe is with protection, and I will offer you mine if you give me something in return.”

“What do you want in return?” Rhoam was right- he wouldn’t last all that long on his own. He needed help from somewhere, and this man certainly seemed willing to help him. Hopefully he was able to, as well. Hopefully he didn’t demand something outrageous from Link.

“I would like you to join my organisation. We protect people from subversive groups in the city, and my daughter has been without a personal bodyguard for over a month now.” Link, surprisingly, liked the way this was going. He would probably be able to protect one other person, and he liked Zelda. “She needs a bodyguard and, once we have checked you have the necessary skills, I would like you to fill this role.”

“I can do that.” That was a relief. A job that would allow him to stay close to the one person that he knew for sure that he could trust. Really, this day couldn’t have been going any better, but he probably shouldn’t show that to Rhoam. “What do I get in return for protecting her?” 

“Protection for yourself,” Rhoam said. He looked a little annoyed, but Link didn’t think that protection for himself was quite enough when he could probably just offer his services to someone else. “You will have your living expenses covered and you will be equipped with the means to follow my daughter wherever she goes.” That statement didn't make much sense to him, but it sounded like he was being offered something in return so he didn't mind.

“So I'll be here?” The house didn’t seem all that safe, but who knew? Maybe that big, breakable glass ceiling wasn’t so breakable after all. Nothing else was the same as it used to be, so why would the fragility of glass not have changed?

“Yes,” he said. “Leon!” He called, raising his voice and shifting it into a tone which almost made Link stand to attention just hearing it. This man definitely knew what it was to be an authority figure. The man from before opened the door and nodded. “Could you get Zelda for me?” The man nodded again and disappeared out of view. It seemed that Link would be getting a formal introduction to the girl that he had been talking to all day, then. This was certainly going to be interesting.


	3. Settling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link meets Zelda for a second time and she helps him settle in a little in this new world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuse for why this took so long but I will endeavour to update a little more regularly from now on?

This time when Zelda emerged from her room, she looked very different. She was carrying herself like some sort of princess, not like a regular person as she’d shown herself to Link before. Clearly, she knew she was important. “Good afternoon, father,” she said. Her voice was different too; higher, lighter, perhaps more feminine. It must be for her father. It was only after she’d greeted Rhoam that she turned to look at him, and she scrunched up her face a little as she looked. Inside his head, she told him she was pretending to be disappointed.

“Good afternoon, Zelda. This here is the young man we’ve been working so hard to get our hands on. Link, this is my daughter Zelda, as I’m sure you’ve guessed. She’s a wonderful young woman, I’m sure you will enjoy her company.” He gave Link a smile that suggested that he shouldn’t grow to enjoy Zelda’s company too much. “I’ll test him first, sweetpea, but I’ve appointed him as your bodyguard, at least for now, so you only have to be escorted by him if you want to go anywhere.”

‘Sweetpea?’ He asked, hoping that he wasn’t grinning too much on the outside.

“Shut up,” Zelda thought, but there was definitely a playful inflection to her tone. “Are you sure this is him, father? He seems to be a little small and he’s definitely not old enough to be a military commander.”

“This is definitely him. He fits the description of the ‘hero’ from a hundred years ago, and he was the one sealed in the shrine. He doesn’t have any memories, either. According to my men, he’s certainly never heard of bulletproof glass.” Bulletproof glass? Well. That explained the giant glass roof. Apparently it wasn’t quite as fragile as it looked.

Link resented being spoken about as if he wasn’t there fully, but he didn’t want to step out of line. If he did anything to anger this man, he knew he’d be in trouble. He’d be providing Link with a home and probably food to eat and likely all his clothes and everything he needed to survive. A witty comment or two could wait until he was alone with Zelda.

“Well, if you say so. Is he still considered suspicious, Father, or may I have some time to get to know my new bodyguard? If you will insist that I need protecting, I would like to know that I will at least get along with this...boy.” In his mind, he could hear Zelda frantically apologising for everything she was saying. He didn’t really mind, as honestly he was probably still a boy. He was definitely less physically impressive than any of the other men working with Rhoam.

“You can take him to your suite and find him somewhere to sleep,” Rhoam said. “I imagine he would like to test his own physical capacities at some point, so it will be a while before he is fully examined. Until then, you are free to get to know him, but don’t forget to get him some clothes and food.”

“Thank you, father.” Zelda smiled sweetly at Rhoam, then beckoned to Link. He followed after her. As soon as she was out of her father’s sight, the change was instantaneous; her posture relaxed, she audibly let out a sigh. “I hate the pressure he puts on me to act like that…”

“I don’t blame you for doing it,” Link said. “He’s very intimidating and if you rely on him it must be so scary, especially with all those people who could very easily beat me up.”

Zelda laughed a little. “That’s one way of putting it. The last time I properly defied him, he took me out of school. That was about ten years ago now and I dread to think which of my freedoms he could revoke next.”

“He sounds lovely.” Link frowned. “Ten years ago…you couldn’t have been more than seven or eight. What did you do that was so bad?” Children weren’t exactly master criminals, unless that was another thing he’d forgotten.

Zelda bit her lip. She was clearly thinking about it, and it wasn’t a pleasant memory. She opened the door to her rooms and then shut it again before she continued. “There was a Sheikah girl in my class and I wanted to invite her to my birthday party. My father said she couldn’t come, and I said I didn’t understand why she shouldn’t, and then I told him he was wrong when he said she might steal something.”

Link didn’t fully understand all the parts of that sentence, but some instinctive memory told him that the way Zelda’ father had acted was very wrong. He curled his lip in disgust, shaking his head. “That sounds unfair. Is that all you did? Stood up for your friend?”

Zelda nodded. “I don’t remember all of the argument, but I think he said something about how my school and my teachers were a bad influence on me and he wanted to keep me safe, so he took me out of school.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Link took a moment to actually look around Zelda’s room then, and it was really something special. Painted a rich shade of green, the walls were lined with bookshelves and windows bearing plants on their sills. Clearly Zelda had quite the eye for botany. “He doesn’t sound like a very good father. What about your mother?”

Zelda sighed, wandering over to one of the windows. The room really was beautiful, and it mirrored the one next door, so it didn’t look like a bedroom even though there was what appeared to be a surface for sleeping in the corner of the room. “My mother died when I was just a baby, barely a month old; I can never work out if my father blames me for it.”

“Sorry.” Link was having to say that a lot, it seemed. “I mean…it can’t really be your fault, can it? You were a baby. It’s not like you murdered her.” He was just going to go with his judgements despite the lack of memory to back them up, and say that babies didn’t make very good killers.

Zelda turned round and smiled at him, but he could tell she was still upset. She probably couldn’t even hide it if she tried. “When you were born, deaths of mothers in childbirth was incredibly common, but when I was born, medicine had moved on. My mother died of something rare that she contracted in hospital while giving birth, but the only reason she didn’t give birth at home was because of me and a complication in my birth. You don’t have to say anything, it was a long time ago and I never exactly lost her.”  
“Okay…” Link looked sheepishly down at his feet, somewhat unsure of exactly what he was supposed to say next. Dead parents weren’t exactly a topic that were easy to move on from, and now he felt a little awkward. “You have a nice room.”

Zelda laughed. “I suppose I do. This is my office, it’s where I do most of my studying, and my personal library is here too, so feel free to read anything as long as you put it back where you got it.” She then gestured to a ladder that he hadn’t even noticed before. “Up there is my proper suite, there’s my bedroom, bathroom, and a living area sort of thing.”

“You have a personal library?” Link supposed that this room could easily count as one of those. The number of books on these shelves was immeasurable. Rich people really could have anything they wanted, it seemed.

Zelda nodded. “There’s one downstairs, too, which is larger, and my father has his own for all his political documents. He says he doesn’t believe in paying the government for underfunded libraries that are used by people who don’t understand what they’re reading.” Link didn’t understand most of what she meant by that sentence, but he wasn’t going to say so when she made it sound simple like that.

“Where am I going to sleep?” Link peered up the ladder leading to Zelda’s other rooms, wondering if there was something else up there that he just hadn’t seen the first time. Nothing stood out immediately, though from what Zelda had said he couldn’t see the whole thing.

“I don’t know,” Zelda admitted. “I don’t have any friends to have them come round to stay, so I never thought about it before. I could get you a blanket and you could go on the sofa? You need pyjamas, though, because I’m not letting you go naked.”

“Perjamas?” He asked, struggling to copy the word. It had come so quickly and he had no idea what it meant if the alternative was being naked on a near stranger’s sofa.

“Pyjamas,” Zelda corrected. “You know…sleeping clothes. More comfortable than regular clothes, usually. And much better than falling asleep naked on my sofa. That would raise a lot of unwanted questions if anyone else saw.”

“No one sleeps naked,” Link said, hoping that this was true. He didn’t see why people would sleep naked when nights were always so much colder than days. The present seemed to be a very strange place.

“Well, that’s good.” Zelda sighed. “We’ll have to find you an entirely new set of clothes, I suppose. You need to fit in here, and your current attire is hardly very well suited for that. Perhaps I can take you out shopping someday, or perhaps someone else can. I’ve never really been one for shopping.”

Link didn’t really know what to say about that, so he just shrugged. He didn’t exactly know what she meant by shopping, but if the aim was getting clothes for himself then he doubted it would involve the same process as it did before he went to sleep. Or whatever he did. “Why was I asleep?” He asked after a few moments of standing in silence. “And why don’t I have any memories because of it?”

“I don’t think now is a good time to answer that question…” Zelda cleared her throat, clearly looking around for a way to change the subject, and finding nothing. “Let me just say that the limited amount I know is not something that will be suited to your no doubt rather fragile mental state. You need to eat and rest, and perhaps then I can tell you.”

Link frowned and looked away. Everyone knew more than him and he wanted to know more. Not understanding anything was completely exhausting and he was tired of being deceived. Maybe everyone, especially Zelda, thought it was for the best, but he didn’t. He just wanted to know what on earth was going on. But food sounded pretty good too, now he thought about it. He wondered how long it had been since he’d last eaten. A hundred years, he supposed.

“Food would be nice,” he said, probably sounding a little resigned. “What is there to eat?”He could barely remember food, and no doubt it had all changed. Perhaps people ate paper nowadays. How was he to know?

“I’ll go downstairs and get us both something,” Zelda said, glancing up at a circular object Link had been unable to fathom out so far. “It’s not really dinner sort of time yet, but I’m sure you’re starving. You like rice, right?”

“I have absolutely no idea what I like and dislike. I think I like rice.” THe word rang a vague bell in his mind. “Just rice? Or...rice and other things? I don't understand how food is supposed to work now…”

Zelda just laughed. “Don’t overthink it,” she said. “You can go upstairs and make yourself comfortable on the sofa if you want to while I go to get the food. I think you’ll find it easier to learn what food is now from experience.”

“Right.” Link nodded, then headed towards the ladder and made his way up. He could hear Zelda’s footsteps retreating below him, which meant that she was definitely just leaving him alone in this room. He looked around. Not much was recognisable- most confusing was the odd black rectangular thing on a desk in the corner. It wasn’t a mirror, obviously, but he couldn’t imagine what function it was supposed to serve.

Dismissing all the confusing things, he went to sit down, sinking backwards into the seat, possibly with an undignified groan. Until then, he hadn’t really realised just how much his whole body hurt and how tired he was. He looked over to a small bookshelf in the corner, then reluctantly stood up again to go and fetch a book. As expected, he recognised nothing. All of the covers on the books here were more colourful, less grown up and dull than the ones that had been downstairs. But when he tried to read what was there, they just looked like meaningless squiggles. He put the book down again, but he continued to look over the books. He didn’t understand anything on any of them, and he still didn’t understand when he tried opening them. Wonderful. He was going to have to learn to read again. Link gave a heavy sigh, then went to go and sit back down on Zelda’s sofa. Hopefully she wouldn’t be too long with the food. If there was one thing Link was more so than tired, it was hungry.

“Hey, Link?” The voice sounding in his head came as a surprise- Link almost jumped up off the sofa, but he remembered just in time that it was only Zelda. “What do you want to drink?” 

‘Water?’ He didn’t know what else he would drink, because he hadn’t seen any animals as he came in. Other than a dog, he hadn’t seen any animals at all since he had woken up. ‘I can have some water if that’s safe.’ He hadn’t seen any running water either.

“Safe? Oh… We have sources of water inside our houses now, Link. They’re very safe, I assure you. I’ll be up in a couple of minutes with your food. I trust that you haven’t fallen asleep yet? I don’t know if our communication would work in dreams… Perhaps we should run tests on that.”

‘I don’t think I’m asleep,’ Link said, smiling a little to himself. Zelda was a bit scatterbrained and sometimes what she thought made basically no sense. ‘How do you have water sources inside? Are there lots of rivers here?’

“No. I’ll have to explain indoor plumbing to you some time. Basically, all I have to do is turn a little handle and I can have as much clean water as I want.” Link frowned at that- he couldn’t picture what Zelda was describing at all. This world was strange. “It’s the same world,” she said, “it’s just more advanced than the one your mind is used to. Are you sure you don’t remember how to read? From the type of amnesia you seem to have, you should still have your procedural memories. Maybe you were never able to read.”

‘Maybe…’ Link honestly couldn’t remember. He felt like he should be able to read, though- there was a nagging feeling somewhere deep inside of him that told him he was just missing something.

“It’s not a problem,” Zelda told him. “I’ve always been interested in education and I’d be happy to teach you. Reading is definitely important, and writing, especially if you’re meant to go everywhere with me like father said.”

‘Thank you.’ Link settled back against the sofa, and soon enough he heard the sounds of Zelda entering the room below and walking up the ladder. Just the knowledge that she had food seemed to be making him hungrier- he couldn’t wait to see what she had brought.

Zelda glanced around the room, her eyes falling on him almost immediately. She knelt down on the floor and picked up a tray he hadn’t even seen before and then brought it over to the table before she sat down next to him. “Rice, chicken and a sauce the chef made,” she said with a smile. “Tomato, probably.”

“Thank you.” Link took the tray, setting it back down on his lap. The food looked delicious, and smelled it too. He picked up the knife and fork on the tray and started eating without hesitation, going so far as to bend low over his plate in order to shovel food faster into his mouth.

“Slow down!” Zelda said with a laugh. “Really, Link, if my father saw you eating like that he would have me throw you out of the window.” Link couldn’t tell if she was being serious, but he straightened up a little anyway.

“Haven’t eaten for ages,” he mumbled around a half-chewed mouthful of food. Zelda clearly had to stifle a laugh then, shaking her head in despair at his bad table manners. Link just carried on eating, convinced now that this was the best thing he had ever tasted.

“I can see that,” she said. “Just don’t forget that you’re sleeping on this sofa. Give me a minute, I’m going to see if I can find you some blankets for later.”

Link nodded, not wanting to accidentally spew food all over Zelda. The chicken and rice had a familiar taste, but the tomato sauce was completely new. He’d eaten tomatoes before, he thought, but this was so different to any taste he recognised. And it was delicious. He finished the whole plate within five minutes, and only Zelda’s presence was stopping him from bending down to lick up the last vestiges of sauce from his plate. “That was amazing,” he said with a grin. “Is there more?”

Zelda laughed. “I guess you must be starving after being asleep for a hundred years,” she said. “There isn’t any more of that, but if you want to come with me I’m sure we can find some more food and maybe a few sets of clothes for you.

“Please.” Link didn’t hesitate to stand up, eagerly heading towards the ladder. He waited for Zelda to leave first, though- he didn’t know his way around her home yet, and anyway, it was probably rude to run off without her. Even if he really wanted food.

“We’ll go and get some food first,” she said, “and then we can probably go and find some clothes somewhere. I think we have storerooms somewhere in the house, I just don’t know where they are yet. And we can try and find something roughly in your size, but a lot of the people my father employs are a lot larger than you.”

“Okay.” Link opened the door for Zelda and she walked out, motioning for him to follow. He was led downstairs and through a couple of rooms into a large kitchen, empty for now. Empty of people, but no doubt very full of food.

“What do you want?” Zelda asked, looking around the kitchen. “There’s fruit, and yoghurt.”

“What’s yoghurt?” Link felt like a little bit of a fool for having to ask, but he really had no idea what that was. Fruit was a word he recognised, but yoghurt. It didn’t even have any root words he recognised.

“Oh, it’s...um… It’s hard to describe,” Zelda settled on after a moment’s thought. “It’s like milk but a lot thicker and less sweet. It’s good, though, especially when you eat it with fruit. Do you want to try some?”

“I, um, okay,” he said. He still wasn’t really sure what it was, but it sounded okay. If Zelda liked it, maybe it was good. He just didn’t know at the moment.

“Which of these fruits do you recognise?” Zelda asked, handing him a bowl after she removed something yellow.

“Apples, um…” Link looked over the bowl, then shook his head. “Just apples. What’s that yellow thing you put on the counter?” He nodded over towards it. It didn’t look familiar, but the very fact that Zelda had taken it away made him curious.

“It’s a banana,” she said. “There’s some medical stuff with it that means it messes with some people’s blood or something and you haven’t been checked out for that so I don’t want to risk it.”

“There are fruits which poison certain people?” This time was strange. Fruits that only hurt certain people was very strange.

“Yes. For now, let’s stick to something familiar. You recognised apples, so I’ll cut one up for you. If you open the fridge- that’s the white thing in the corner- the yoghurt is the stuff in the blue tub. Go and get it?”

Link went to where she’d directed, but when he opened the fridge it was cold. “Why is it cold?” He asked. “There isn’t any frost magic here.” He didn’t know why he remembered that, but saying it felt strange in his head.

“Oh, it’s not magic. It’s electricity… I’ll have to explain that to you at some point. Not today, though. I’ll give you some time to adjust before I start acclimatising you to modern science.” Zelda held out her hand, and Link hurried to fetch the yoghurt and pass it to her. He couldn’t help but stare at the other things in the fridge, too- various meat products on the bottom shelf, and an array of unfamiliar, more colourful packages on the upper shelves.

“I’m not even going to try and pronounce acc- no,” he said, trying to smile about it, but he felt like something was wrong. He really was not used to this and he just felt like he was missing something really important.

“That’s probably for the best.” Zelda turned away to focus on something for a couple of minutes, and then turned back to present him with a bowl of yoghurt with slices of apple balanced on top. “Spoons are in the drawer.”

Link turned to look at the whole row of drawers in front of him. “Which one?” He asked. This was absolutely hopeless. Things were complicated and everything was tiring. And he apparently still needed clothes before he got to sleep.  
“The one right in front of you, Link.” Zelda smiled, pointing, and Link followed her finger and opened the drawer. It was in fact filled with spoons, forks, and knives, all carved with a precision he’d never seen before out of an oddly shiny metal. He selected a smaller spoon, taking the bowl from Zelda and looking around for a table to eat at.

“I’m exhausted,” he complained, almost sitting down slightly too hard on the chair. It was a lot softer than he was expecting. “I only walked here, but I’m so tired.”

Zelda smiled, taking a seat opposite him with a glass of what was probably milk but he honestly wasn’t sure what to think about anything anymore, so he wouldn’t swear on it. “You can sleep after we find you some clothes to wear, I promise.”

“Thank you.” Link prodded at his yoghurt and apples, then scooped up a spoonful and raised it to his lips. The taste was nothing like what he had expected, but it wasn’t bad. Really, it was rather good. He looked up and found Zelda was watching him over the rim of her glass. “Is something wrong?” He asked.

Zelda shook her head, but then she answered the question anyway. He didn’t understand her. “You just don’t look very...well? I know you’re tired, but you look really ill and nervous.”

“I was asleep for years and I don’t remember anything from before that,” Link said wearily. “Maybe I am ill. I honestly have no idea.” He sighed. “Maybe they put be in there because I was dying, and I’m still dying.” Zelda looked very alarmed at that, maybe even upset, and Link couldn’t fathom why that was surprising.

“I hope you’re okay,” she said. “Maybe we should get you medically examined tomorrow or something? I hope you’re not ill, that would be dreadful and frankly unfair.”

“I hope I’m not ill, too.” Link spooned more yoghurt and apples into his mouth, chewing slowly. He was exhausted, and still suffering from that feeling of inherent wrongness, but he didn’t actually think he was ill. Not in a way that would make him die. He didn’t feel much like he was dying, but he didn’t know what dying actually felt like so maybe he was dying.

When he was done, Zelda seemed to be in a hurry to get moving. “I think you need to get to sleep as soon as possible,” she explained. “I think you must just be really tired and it looks like you’re about to pass out.”

“I support that idea…” Sleep sounded wonderful at the moment. Link stood up slowly, leaning on the back of his chair for a moment before getting up and starting to move away. Zelda stayed next to him, looking awfully concerned. “I’m fine, I can walk,” he said. He was tempted to say he’d already died once, but that would be cruel.

“I feel like I should remind you that I can hear what you’re thinking,” Zelda said in his head. “And I can tell when you feel like you’re about to faint.”

“I don’t think I’m about to faint.” Nevertheless, Link didn’t object when Zelda rested a hand on his back to guide him up the stairs and back into her rooms.

“Sleep on the sofa. You get yourself settled, I’ll bring you a couple of blankets. Go on, lie down. You need it.”

“I thought you wanted to get clothes first?” He asked. He wasn’t really going to protest if she insisted, but he didn’t want to go against anything Rhoam wanted if he was the only one keeping him here.

“Go and lie down. You’re swaying on your feet, you need to rest.” Zelda practically pushed him down onto the sofa, but Link went willingly. Goddesses, it was so soft… He just wanted to lie down for another hundred years. He felt no shame in falling asleep before Zelda even managed to get back with the blankets.

**Author's Note:**

> There is a fic that is in the same universe as this one with a different group of characters and a completely different plot! That one focuses around the Yiga Clan and Sheikah culture if that's more your thing.
> 
> Any comments you have on this would be greatly appreciated :) myself and my collab partner have worked very hard on this. You can also contact me (Sam) at softbreathofthewild on Tumblr.


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